Guardians of the Water
by Jinamos Noyerit
Summary: When a Guardian is killed in a moment of inattention, what can the other Guardians do? A very much AU story, involving Lugia and Lugia TF in a world very similar to modern-day Earth. ON HOLD
1. Introductions

Author's Note: Lugia is obviously from Pokémon, which I do not own and have no rights to. Also, _italics_ indicates telepathy. This story is very much an AU story, and doesn't really touch on Pokémon at all other than importing Lugia to a universe very much like ours. As for what Lugia are doing in our universe, well...that'll be explained in the next chapter. **If you came here looking for Ash, Misty, Lance, or any such character, you might want to just hit "back" now, because unless this story really gets away from me they won't be showing up.** Those of you who read the "snippets" story I wrote, which was until now, the only one you had to judge me by: this story is very different in tone. The snippets story offers decent insight into my sense of humour, but not really into my writing style.

Perhaps I should start by introducing myself. I am Michael Toyo, and I was once like you. Mundane, ordinary—a college student, like most others, just gliding through on his way to a degree in Computer Science...until that one fateful day, when I was approached by someone who identified himself as "Alistair Silver". He was a slightly odd man, dressed in a faded suit. He wasn't that unusual for my school, but something about him struck me as different.

I was too right about that.

We chatted for a while about current issues—the upcoming elections, the hurricanes battering the Gulf Coast, and sometime during that conversation he asked me to help. He wanted to know if I wanted to help keep the world's climate on track. I assumed that he meant some kind of large-scale project to counteract global warming.

I was wrong about that.

Of course, when offered this chance to do good (and being a rather naïve undergraduate at the time), I leaped at the chance to accept. I was at a research university, and hoping for a chance to do some research that mattered. Of course, it did matter! However, it wasn't in the way that I expected.

Mr. Silver had given me a place and a time to meet him and his colleagues. He wanted to meet me at a Japanese restaurant a few miles out of town over lunch. That seemed fairly reasonable, as he wanted to let his associates get to know me before I started working with them. I arrived slightly early, and was surprised to see everyone already waiting for me. I ordered some sushi—toro and a spicy tuna hand roll—and was met with knowing grins. We lost ourselves in casual conversation until we had all finished eating, and then discussion turned to the project. They were impressed by my enthusiasm for the job, and offered to show me around right then. I took them up on their offer, and followed their cars to a beach.

I was surprised by the location, to say the least. My colleagues started a discussion of the rising water level, and mentioned that if nobody did anything to prevent it, the land for over a mile inland would disappear under the water within a fairly short timescale. One of them, who had introduced himself to me as Mr. Bozu spoke up: "Are you sure you want this job? It can be stressful at times."

"Would it be a job if it wasn't?" I replied.

Bozu chuckled. "Sure, kid, but this is usually more stressful. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course!"

"Very well." And with that, he stepped back to Mr. Silver and Ryujin, who spread out around me. I noticed their eyes glowing blue, and then I blacked out.

I woke up confused. My brain was buzzing with new information, but I couldn't seem to harness it. I tried to stretch, and that's when I noticed that my body didn't seem to be working the way it usually did. My arms seemed very clumsy, and my legs felt...odd. And was that _a tail!? _When I got my eyes somewhat focused, I saw Mr. Silver standing in front of me, and noticed I was in a dim cave.

"What did you do to me?" I shouted. Or rather, _tried_ to shout. All that came out was a musical cry.

"I see you're still disoriented. I'm really very sorry about the distress. We didn't lie to you, per se. You will be working to keep the climate on track, just in a way you weren't expecting."

"What do you mean?" I tried to ask. Again, all that came out was that mournful cry.

"Ah, I keep forgetting that our new recruits aren't familiar with telepathy. In your current form, you won't be able to speak verbally. You are able to communicate through telepathy, though. Just focus your thoughts at the person you need to talk to..."_ Like this_, he added. _Just concentrate, it should come naturally._

_What did you DO to me?_, I asked

_Gave you a form more suitable to the task at hand. You can be told everything, now, but I'll try to keep it to the basics. There have always been a few Lugia on this world, working to modulate the climate. We are very long lived, and have the ability to protect ourselves, but one of us was caught by surprise in a weapon test and was killed before she could escape. We managed to remove her body, but there weren't enough of us to keep the world in balance, so we needed to find a replacement. Your mind suggested you were a suitable prospect, but we had to be sure you would share our goals._

_But...does this mean I can't have any contact with humans now?_

_Don't be foolish. You will learn how to assume a human form soon enough. We have the ability to take on any of three forms easily—a human form, a pure Lugia form, and a hybrid form. How do you think we contacted you?_

And with that, "Mr. Silver" stepped back from me and began glowing a bright bluish-white. After a few seconds, the glow faded and he stood before me in a form that seemed somehow familiar. He was a giant silver-colored bird, with the silver marred only by a blue patch on his belly, with smooth skin and a sleek pointed head ending in a powerful beak. The wings were fairly long and ended in five finger-like appendages. The tail was thick and had spikes near the end, and there was a spiked blue "mask" around the eyes.

_That looks...familiar somehow_ I said.

Silver looked thoughtful. _We don't advertise our presence, but we are sometimes seen. It is possible that someone who saw us later included something similar in their artwork_

_I remember now! You were a legendary Pokémon in the games I used to play! This is ridiculous! This can't be real, I must be hallucinating!_ I 'yelled' franticly.

_I assure you that we are very real. Without us, the climate of Earth would be very different and with great probability inimical to life. However, if you need time to adapt to your new conditions, I can leave you in peace for a while._

_I think I need some time to contemplate this._ I affirmed.

Silver left, diving out the water on the floor of the cave. I thought about what I'd be missing, and decided that apart from my friends and family there was nothing really worth going back to. I wondered if I'd be able to ever see my friends again. However, it looked like there was no reversing the transformation, so I'd never be able to go back to the way things were. I resolved to ask Silver if I could ever see them again the next time I saw him, and drifted off to sleep.

Ending note: Well, that's the first chapter of this story. I hope you liked it, but if you don't, don't worry! These first few chapters are mainly explaining how Michael got to be where he is, and also a bit of how the world works. I can't promise that this story will be updated that often, as my workload varies quite a bit. Of course, I started writing this story as a way to procrastinate on a paper, so...it might end up updating more often as the amount of stuff I have to procrastinate on increases. You never know!  
Also, in case you haven't read my profile or missed this in the mess: I like it when I get positive feedback, but I also like it when people criticize my writing constructively. I really do! I love to know where I screwed up, so I can fix it. Flames, however will be donated to Amundsen-Scott Station to help defray heating costs after I get done laughing at them.


	2. Training

Author's Note: The same stuff as last time: Lugia is obviously from Pokémon, which I do not own and have no rights to. Also, _italics_ indicates telepathy. This story is very much an AU story, and doesn't really touch on Pokémon at all other than importing Lugia to a universe very much like ours. If you came here looking for Ash, Misty, Lance, or any such character, you might want to just hit "back" now, because unless this story really gets away from me they won't be showing up.

The next morning, I woke up to find Silver standing over me, looking concerned. "You haven't eaten for some time. You should eat," he said He placed a bowl full of fish in front of me._ "_Eat this, it will help you regain your strength."

_Just...eat it raw?!_ I exclaimed.

"Of course. You didn't seem to have any reluctance earlier," he reminded me with a slight smile.

_Earlier? _

"Yes. You should remember it, it was just before we took you to the beach..."

_But that was sushi! This is just...raw fish!_

_"_And what did you think sushi _is_?" asked Silver impatiently.

_Properly prepared raw fish! This isn't prepared at all!_

_"_You'll have to get over your hangups soon. I'll leave you with this for now. Please ensure you are well fed before your training begins tomorrow."With that, Silver left me again. I sat for a long time in the dim cave, thinking. Eventually, my stomach reminded me that I needed to eat, so I bent my head down to the bowl and tried the fish. Surprisingly, it tasted fairly good. After eating, I decided to try to get the hang of moving around with my new body. It was easier than I expected. Apart from underestimating the size of my limbs, they moved naturally. The tail took some getting used to, though. I walked over to the water, and looked down. My face looked similar to Silver's, but the mask was a turquoise color. I wasn't yet ready to try swimming or flying, but before the day was over I was able to move around easily enough. When the sun went down, I tried to sleep, but couldn't manage it. Apparently, lugia need less rest than humans do. I decided to meditate for the rest of the night, and quickly fell into my meditative "zone". At least I could still do that.

I was still meditating when the sun rose and Silver showed up. "Good morning! I see you're awake. I think you've noticed by now that you don't need nearly as much sleep as you used to." He was being obnoxiously cheerful, but quickly clamped down on his mood. "We need you to be able to function at our level as quickly as possible. We have recruited two of you in anticipation of certain changes to our policies, but those of us who are not undergoing the change are hard pressed to maintain the climate."

_Wait, you said "not undergoing the change." Do you mean...you were changed like this also?_ I asked him.

"Yes, I was. The first lugia came to this planet millions of years ago, shortly after the creatures you referred to as dinosaurs died out. It was decided that this planet, being in a fairly unstable area, needed additional protection. As the first lugia grew old, they began the process of selecting suitable beings to replace them, and transforming them. Since then there have been a great many such cycles. We are long-lived, but not immortal." Silver had fallen into the lecturing tone of voice that was all too familiar to me.

_Wait, how long is "long lived"? Are we talking about a hundred years, or what?_

"We are capable of living for several millenia before dying of old age. However, it is entirely possible that we can be killed before reaching the end of our natural lifespan. We have had a very long time to evolve and spread across galaxies, always working in defense of life, until our 'ancestors', and I use that term fairly loosely, genetically engineered themselves to better protect life. Since then, we have been unable to reproduce, but we have gained the ability to grant our form to others.

"We are sworn to defend life, and we spend our time maintaining the climates and protecting life from certain natural dangers that evolution cannot prevent, as well as certain unnatural dangers that life so often produces. To that end, our 'ancestors' altered themselves to forms very similar to this. We have occasional contact from offworld lugia, but it is generally only if our help is needed or in the event of a Conclave.

"It seems that you have mastered gross motor control, so it is time to introduce you to the rest of the knowledge you will need for basic functioning in this body. Please resume meditating as you were when I came in, it greatly eases this process."

I sank into meditation, drifting along the streams of thought and drying them out until only awareness remained. Once I had reached that trance state, Silver walked up to me and placed his hands on my head, just behind my "mask". All of a sudden, a great burst of _knowledge_ flowed into me—the instincts to control my new body in fine detail, and some extra general knowledge about the culture that I was being brought into. "Please remain calm, and don't try to move for the next few minutes," Silver said. "It usually takes a while to assimilate the knowledge, and if you try to move before it settles in you may hurt yourself."

_That was certainly odd_, I said. _I've never felt anything like that in my life!_

"You'll feel it again," Silver assured me. "There's still a bit of information on controlling your other abilities to impart, as well as instruction on assuming your other forms and a general knowledge burst."

I meditated for a while longer, hoping that it would help the knowledge integrate with my mind. Eventually, Silver informed me that I could try moving around. I stood up, and it came naturally. I stretched my wings, and found I was able to control each of the stubby "fingers" at the end individually. It felt natural, like I had been born to this body!

"Lets try a bit of swimming. You'll find that your lungs can extract oxygen from water almost as efficiently as they can from air, but I'm still glad you didn't try to swim out before this. Your human inhibitions about breathing underwater, while they don't apply to this body, would have prevented you from respirating underwater. You may have come to some harm." And with that, Silver resumed his lugian form and dived into the water at the exit of the cave. With some misgivings, I followed him. There was an underwater tunnel leading out of the cave that seemed to go on forever. When my lungs started burning, I knew I needed to take a deep breath. Even after the burst of knowledge that had been imparted to me, I still didn't want to breathe water! I fought my inhibitions, and let the water into my lungs. It was a very strange feeling, although it felt natural enough. It certainly eased the pain in my lungs, and imparted some extra energy—much like the feeling after surfacing from too long underwater.

I swam on after Silver, and we eventually came to the mouth of the tunnel. We swam up to the surface of the sea, and burst into the air. I found that I was able to force the water out of my lungs by exhaling hard, and for a few minutes Silver and I just circled above the sea. I was reveling in the feeling of flight. I had flown small airplanes before, but this was an entirely different feeling! Eventually, we flew to the uninhabited island that contained the cave. We landed on the beach, and Silver told me it was time to learn about my psychic abilities. He returned to his human form, and after I had returned to that meditative state, he imparted another burst of information. As it unpacked, I considered what other psychic abilities I might have other than telepathy. It turns out that lugia have a fairly large band of abilities.

There was what I supposed to be fairly standard telekinesis training: lifting objects, separating out one object from many, and so on. After a few hours of such training, we moved to other abilities. First, I practiced forming a barrier around me. After I managed to create a coherent barrier, Silver tested it against his attacks. First he psychically threw rocks at me, then it progressed to boulders, and then to pure blasts of psychic energy. There were a few that broke through, but Silver quickly deflected them so I came to no real harm. After he deemed that I had sufficiently mastered the barrier, we moved on to the aeroblast, a powerful beam of wind energy. That took a great deal of practice, even just to form it. It took until nearly sunset before I was able to use it accurately to destroy boulders flying through the air a few miles out. I don't think I would ever have mastered it were it not for the telepathically-implanted knowledge.

As the sun was close to the horizon, Silver decided that it was time to break for food. He offered basic instruction on using a whirlpool generated by our own bodies to move quickly through water, and then he taught me how to hunt fish, moving swiftly through the water to snatch one from the rest of its school. As a human, I had never hunted, and in fact been opposed to hunting, but this seemed natural. When I questioned Silver about it, he said he had lifted my mental block against hunting so that I would be able to survive in the wilderness. I had some misgivings about this wholesale altering of my psyche, but Silver assured me that he altered only what was necessary for my survival in my new form, and that he was strictly bound to do no more than that.

After we ate, Silver suggested that we continue training in the dark. He wanted to get started on healing. _Healing?_ I asked, shocked.

_Of course, _Silver replied.

_But...wouldn't that mean someone would have to be hurt?!_

_Unfortunately, yes, but our healing powers are nothing like the incomplete healing your doctors can provide. We can heal the flesh so that it is as if the wound never occurred, while your doctors can only patch it and hope it heals well enough, _Silver told me.

Still concerned, I asked _But...who are we going to hurt?_

_The one you know as Ryujin has volunteered himself,_ Silver informed me I was shocked. I dove down into the water, and spun myself to activate the whirlpool as I dove towards the deeps. Silver followed me. _It will be okay. It is something we all do, and there is always an experienced mentor standing by to insure that there will not be any lasting harm._

_But...but...it doesn't seem RIGHT!_ I shouted.

_It is important that you learn your healing abilities, and how to control them. Please, return to the island with me, _Silver insisted. I gave up and followed him back to the island, and found Ryujin waiting there in his human form. He nodded briskly at Silver, then at me, and transformed to his lugian shape. He looked very much like silver, but the patch on his belly was a reddish color, as was the "mask" around his eyes.

Ryujin stretched out, and asked _Are you ready to begin_

_I suppose so,_ I replied.

_Very well. Remember, proximity is essential for healing._ Ryujin reminded me. Then, he stuck out his head, looked back, and bit a chunk out of his wing, leaving a missing chunk that looked to be about the size of a mid-sized pineapple. The wound was bleeding badly.

_Ryujin!_ I exclaimed.

_What did you expect, flowers and rainbows? Start HEALING me!_ Ryujin grated out. I could tell by his mental tone that he was in pain. Chastened, I bent over him and stretched out my wings. Placing the tips over the wound, I concentrated on healing him. I concentrated on the flow of healing energy from me into him, and, though it was slightly draining, I could tell it was helping. I opened my eyes, and noticed a faint blue glow under my wingtips, flowing into the wound. The wound had already stopped bleeding, and the flesh was regenerating. After around a minute, Ryujin's wing was fully restored. It didn't look like it had ever been injured before.

I nearly collapsed with relief. _Very good_, came the slightly deeper tones of Silver. _You have a great deal of talent for one so young._

_Thank you! But tell me, is it always this draining to heal?_ I asked.

_Not always. Regenerating flesh is very draining, but most wounds don't remove much flesh—usually it just tears it. Also, you'll find that your energy reserves grow as you gain experience. However, for this next exercise in healing, we'll do something less intense. Just a broken bone and some scratches, it'll be a piece of cake compared to what you just did._

_Wait, you started me off with the MOST difficult aspect of healing? That doesn't seem very smart!_

_Well,_ Silver said, _I was right here. I could have stepped in if you were unable to heal Ryujin. Also, I needed to see how talented you were, and that is easiest when you haven't used your energy on healing more minor wounds first. But now, its time for your next attempt._ With that, he levitated a largish rock up and smashed it against Ryujin's body. _Heal him!_

I immediately went over to Ryujin and placed my wingtips over his ribcage, where he had been struck. I concentrated on that healing energy again, and felt an upwelling flowing out of me and into him. The bones set in place, and the small tears in his skin welded themselves shut. _This seems...so brutal. Isn't there a better way to train in this, one that doesn't involve beating another lugia to pieces and restoring him?_ I asked

_Not to our knowledge, _ replied Ryujin. _It isn't that bad, though. The pain is temporary, and there is always the knowledge that it is for a purpose._

After a few more rounds, where Silver beat up Ryujin and I stepped in to heal him, Silver called the proceedings to a halt. _Michael needs to replenish himself before we move to the next phase. Michael, although your body does not yet need to rest, you are low on spiritual energy. Meditation should serve to innervate you._

Relieved, I sunk into my meditative trance and contemplated what the "next phase" would be. Presumably, it wasn't more healing of Ryujin, and doing the same to Silver as we did to Ryujin would be unproductive. So it would have to be some other form of healing, as I didn't think we were moving on to another topic just yet. But what other form was there, if not...oh, no. I'm going to learn to heal myself. That'll be a useful skill, but...I don't think I'm going to like the training.

Sure enough, after I had meditated for a few hours, Silver told me that it was time to learn to heal myself. He told me that it was usually more difficult to focus the healing energies inward, which is why I was trained to heal others first. I had to get an instinctive grasp on how to reach that healing energy, and how to focus it, before I could discover how to focus it on myself. Of course, I didn't like the training!

Thankfully, after only a day of healing training, I was allowed to sleep. After I slept, Silver instructed me on assuming my other forms. First, I learned my "hybrid" or anthropomorphic lugia form. It was similar to my "full" lugia form, but reduced in size to roughly seven feet tall and my wings became arms. It was very good to walk around in a human-like form, instead of balancing the massive lugia body on awkward legs. I ran through my repertoire of abilities, and found that I had kept all of them. Testing the healing ability was rather less than fun, but at least I had the assurance that it worked.

Next, I was instructed on how to resume my human form. It was absolutely wonderful to get back into the body I had been born with. I had learned how to use the lugia body, but it didn't yet feel as natural as my human body. I had been told that it would probably take a few years for it to feel like my most natural form. I spent quite a while just swimming and running along the beach, reveling in my human body. I suppose you never really appreciate the body you're born with until its taken away from you. Then again, usually it would never be taken away from you, so there's not much reason to celebrate it. I decided to spend the night on this island in my human form.

Ending note: Well, that's what I've got written so far. In the next chapter, we'll be meeting this other recruit that was mentioned in passing, see more of the Lugian culture on Earth, and see what these changes to the "policies" might be. Again: I don't at all mind constructive criticism, and in fact would like it very much if, should you spot something I screwed up on, you would tell me about it so I can fix it. Flames shall be donated to the Eskimos, but not until I get done laughing. Finally, there are no promises about the update schedule for this.


	3. The Other Recruit

**Chapter 3: The Other "Recruit"**

"Good morning, Michael!" came a cheery cry from nearby.

"Whazza?" I mumbled. I was waking up rather slowly. It had been nice to spend a night in my human form, but I was reminded that I had never been a morning person.

"Its time for you to meet the other recruit," Silver said from where he was sitting.

"Silver? How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Not too long, just a few hours. You must realize, when you're in your human form you may keep most of your abilities, but you are also subject to the limits of the human body. You still need just as much sleep as you used to need before we changed you. So, if you wouldn't mind assuming your lugia form so that you can be alert, we can continue this talk." Silver told me. Groggily, I tried to remember how to get back to my lugia form, and then I applied the energy where it was needed. As the transformation progressed, my drowsiness faded rapidly.

_Sorry about that. Why do I need to meet the other recruit now?_

"We kept her as a human while you adjusted and trained. You see, for the transformation to work, every lugia on a particular planet has to be involved in it. Its a limit placed on us so that one of us couldn't just convert everyone they met. Anyway, Ryujin and Bozu have been keeping up the illusion of a research lab for the benefit of the other recruit, but now its time to introduce her to what she is really needed for.

"You already have knowledge of the ritual involved—it was packed into one of the knowledge bursts I gave you, and its not something you need to practice—but it is time we change her and give you some time off while she adjusts. Then we'll let you both know about our policies in more detail, and how we're changing them."

I vaguely recalled Silver mentioning two recruits and changing policies when I was first changed, and was interested in knowing how they had changed. First, though, I wanted to see who this other recruit was. Thankfully, the answer wasn't long in coming. Silver reverted to his lugia form, and we flew off to a nearby beach, where we both changed back to our human forms. We walked to the road, and then drove off to a restaurant. I was surprised to notice it was the same one where I had had lunch with Silver, Bozu, and Ryujin. I walked in with Silver, and the waitress took us to a table for five. We only had to wait a few minutes before Bozu and Ryujin walked in along with a girl that...I KNEW her!

"Sarah?" I asked, surprised.

"Michael? What are you doing here?" she asked me. "I haven't seen you in class for the last week and a half, and I didn't see you at the lab either!'

Silver sent me a worried reminder to not tell her what was going on just yet. I sent back, _I know. I'll handle it, just give me a first name to use_. Silver told me to use _Jason_,and I said "I was doing fieldwork with Jason. We were studying sea temperatures to examine how well they'd support algae."

"You just left without telling anyone! Dr. Scott was worried about you! And Mr. K wasn't too happy about you missing class again..." she said reproachfully.

"It came up at the last minute. I was a bit too eager to get into the fieldwork, perhaps, but I'll explain to them what's going on. So what have you been doing at the lab?" And with that, the conversation shifted to small talk about our "field data" and the theoretical work at the lab. I was relieved to notice that Sarah had ordered sushi. That would probably ease the transition a bit, since she couldn't be entirely averse to raw fish. Eventually, we finished eating, payed the bill, and left. We drove Sarah out to the beach, and asked her if she wanted to take part in some field work. She agreed, and we began the ritual.

Silver, Bozu, Ryujin, and I spread out around her, and as we began applying the necessary psychic energies, our eyes began glowing blue. Sarah managed to say "What are y..." before the energies reduced her to unconsciousness. We continued to apply the psychic energy along the patterns designated by the ritual, until we were left with an unconscious lugia in the center of our square. Silver and I supported Sarah's unconscious body as Bozu and Ryujin reverted to their "true" lugia forms, and then they took over the psychic lifting as Silver and I reverted. Then, the four of us flew to the same island I had been left at, and Bozu and Ryujin flew away to mind their duties while Silver and I assumed our human forms, and waited.

Eventually, Silver said "You don't have to wait here. I can handle introducing her to her new form, and you don't have any duties just yet. You can return to your school for a while, now."

"No," I replied. "I know Sarah, and I think I should be here for her."

"Were you in a relationship?" asked Silver.

"Not really," I said. "We knew each other from classes, and we formed a study group. We've become good friends, but it never progressed beyond that."

"I see," said Silver. "Well, it'll be a long night. You're welcome to fly free for a while if you want to. She won't be awake until a bit after dawn."

"That would be nice," I said. "I think I'll do that." Reverting to my trueform, I dived out the underwater tunnel and then up into the open air. I reveled in the ease of flight, and the sensation of it. The sense of freedom was still intoxicating. I realized my parents would be worried about me, so I cast my mind out, searching for theirs. I found them, sleeping but still knotted with worry. I applied my powers to removing the worry, and leaving them with a reassurance that I was fine. Eventually, the last of the worry left their sleeping minds, and I returned to flying aimlessly around. Around an hour before dawn, by my internal clock, I flew back into the cave. I sat with Silver, waiting and contemplating what I was going to say.

Dawn came, what seemed like an eternity later. Soon after the sun was in the sky, Sarah stirred. She opened her eyes, and looked around wildly. She opened her beak, and out came that musical cry that was all too familiar to me. She focused, first on Silver and then on me. I can guess at what was going through her mind, but I decided not to probe her mind.

"Sarah..." I said. "I suspect you're still disoriented."

Again came that haunting cry.

"Look, you'll still be doing the work you signed up to do. Climatology. Only, its a bit more hands on than you might have expected. Also, you may have noticed that you can't actually speak right now.

Sarah nodded slowly.

_Its okay. You can still speak telepathically, like this. Just concentrate on the person you want to talk to, and what you want to say. It should come naturally,_ I said telepathically.

_What...what did you do to me? All I remember was you circling around me, and the glowing eyes, and..._ she sounded hysterical.

"Calm down! I'm very sorry for the slight deception we pulled on you, but it was important that you not be allowed to know exactly what you'd be doing until you were fully committed. I'm not sure precisely why, I'm almost as new to this as you are. All I know is that its policy that we couldn't tell you ahead of time."

_What do you mean, "new to this?"_ Sarah demanded.

I sighed. "I think its time to show you. Silver, do we want to do this at the same time?"

Silver nodded, and we both spread out. Then, we reverted to our true lugia shapes.

_What ARE you?_ Sarah asked frantically.

_Exactly what you are, as you're going to find out. We're just a little bit more experienced. Well, I'm just a little bit more experienced, I was transformed just before I stopped showing up to class...for the obvious reason. Silver will tell you more, and train you. By the way, have you ever tried meditation? _I asked casually

_No...why do you ask? _She inquired

_That's a pity, it really does help. Or so I am told. I know that it was easier than I expected it to __be. But here's the thing: we—what you now are, and what Silver and Bozu and Ryujin and I are—we are involved intimately in moderating the climate. We are here to keep the Earth inhabitable by life. Surely that's a goal you can believe in! Now I'm off to return to class while you train. Then we shall find out about the policies in full and what changes are being made together—starting with why the two of us were recruited to replace the one who was killed. I'll let Silver explain the details to you._

With that, I flew off back to the beach, shifted to my human form, and got in the car we had left there. I spent the drive back to my college going over my cover story, and wondering if I should say anything about Sarah. I finally decided to tell Mr. K that I had an unexpected personal emergency crop up, and just ask Mrs. Goldsmith and Dr. Scott to tell me what I missed.

Eventually, I got back to school, and, as I went into my dorm room, my roommate opened the door and asked me, "Where the hell have you been? I've been worried!"

I couldn't believe it. I had totally forgotten to even consider what to say to the person MOST likely to question my absence. My mind raced through the possibilities, and I settled on telling him only that there was an emergency and I had to leave with no notice for a week. I apologized for not informing him or leaving him a note, and told him that I'd rather not talk about the details just yet. I also called my parents, told them that I was in fact okay, and that I was offered an opportunity I couldn't turn down. I told them I was working on a classified climate-control project, and that I wasn't allowed to discuss the details with anyone not on the team at this time.

Eventually, Monday rolled around and I showed up for classes. Thankfully, I only had lectures which were not attendance-mandatory, so I didn't have to explain anything just yet. Tuesday, though, I had all my classes where I had to explain my absence. I told Mrs. Goldsmith that I'd talk to her after class, and the same for Dr. Scott. I had those classes together, so after the second one ended I waited for the other students to file out. My professors wanted an explanation, and they wanted a GOOD one.

"What did you think you were doing, missing out on two weeks of classes with papers due?" Mrs. Goldsmith demanded. Dr. Scott was slightly less pushy, but no less insistent. I told them that I had an unexpected personal emergency. They were rather skeptical. I believe that Dr. Scott's exact words were "Do you really expect us to believe THAT load of shit? Can't you at least come up with a lie with DETAILS?"

I said, "Well, I'd really rather not talk about the details, but I can tell you one thing if you promise to not tell anyone else about it."

Mrs. Goldsmith said, "Go on. This had better be good."

_Oh, its good. But I'm prohibited from discussing it. I might get in serious trouble just for this,_ I told them.

Their mouths gaped open. "Did...did he just..."

"Just what? Speak into your thoughts?" said Dr. Scott, the more rapidly adjusting of the pair.

"Yes...that might be how to describe it." Mrs. Goldsmith said.

_Yes, well, I was quite serious about telling __**no one**__. I really hope you won't,_ I said.

"Of...of course!" Mrs. Goldsmith stuttered.

"And by the way, may I have an extension on the paper deadlines? I need to get caught up. A week from today would work for me."

"I think we could arrange that," Dr. Scott said faintly.

_Oh, and by the way...Sarah won't be into class for a while. Similar thing. If you could offer her a similar extension and also not snoop into it, I'd be very thankful. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you what this is all about in a while, although it isn't very likely,_ I added while walking down the halls.

(Well), I thought, (that wasn't so bad. I would have preferred to not reveal anything, but I never really was one for impulse control. Besides, I don't think they're going to tell anyone...they think I'd know immediately. Hopefully Mr. K will be as easy.)

I walked along the paths, and ate some lunch without really paying attention to the food. I couldn't stop thinking about Sarah, and what she must be going through around now. She'd probably be learning how to hunt just about now...I hoped she wasn't too squeamish. Then again, Silver probably would have removed that tendency if she was. As I was walking back to my dorm, I stumbled upon Mr. K.

"Michael, I hope you can explain why you missed all those classes. That's nearly a 50 percent absentee rate you have right now." he said, his face darkening.

"I have an explanation, but I don't think you'd believe it. Can I just leave it at having a personal emergency pop up?"

"No."

I sighed. "Well, that's the short version. There was a bit of a personal crisis, and I had to go away for a bit. I'm not allowed to talk about it in any more detail."

"Michael, I hope you don't expect me to fall for such a flimsy lie."

I never was a good liar, I reflected. The problem was, that was the truth—or at least as much of it as I was allowed to tell. "Can you keep a secret, Mr. K?'

"Excuse me?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course!"

"Well," I said. "So can I. And it just so happens that this emergency was a secret, and I can't talk about it."

Mr. K stopped and stared at me. "Okay, so you can rip off lines from Terry Pratchett. That doesn't prove anything."

_I really hope you weren't lying about being able to keep a secret, _I said telepathically. At the same time, I said "Just because Terry Pratchett had a quote that applies doesn't mean that I'm lying, it just means that I've been meaning to use that line for a while!"

Mr. K was tongue-tied. He finally managed to get out, "Did...did you say something?"

"Of course. I said that just because an applicable Pratchett quote exists doesn't mean that I concocted the whole scenario just for an excuse to use it."

"I mean, besides that."

"What?" I asked, masking my amusement.

"It sounded like there was...some kind of voice. In my head." Mr. K said.

"Voices in your head? I think there are medications for that nowadays," I deadpanned. It seemed that my experience hadn't deprived me of my snarkiness.

"Nevermind."

"Well then, can we just accept that I'm not allowed to talk about what called me away? I have proof that I could show you, but then I'd have to kill you."

"WHAT?"

"Sorry, it just seems like a quote-dropping day for me. I wouldn't actually have to kill you, just make sure you couldn't tell anyone. Anyway, I was wondering if you could tell me what I missed and give me some time to make it up?"

"No, I can't do that!"

I sighed. "Please, could you reconsider that? I'd rather like to be able to make up for lost time here."

"I don't think so. Not unless you tell me what is going on."

"Didn't I already say that I couldn't tell you, Mr. K? You know what, just drop it, and tell me what I missed and might have time to get done before the due date"

"Mmmhmmm, first why don't you tell me why you couldn't have worked on anything during this 'emergency' of yours."

"You know what? This conversation is going nowhere. I have to get to calc lab now. I'll see you in class." I said. Then, I walked off to my calc lab. Thankfully, the TA there is pretty easygoing and didn't ask me about my absences, he just passed me the project I missed and told me when it was due.

After calc lab came my class with Mr. K. He looked intensely at me when he walked in. He didn't do anything odd in class, but after class he told me that he'd rethought his position, and here were the assignments, and would I please get them to him by Friday? I told him I'd do that, and left. When I'd gotten to my dorm room, I dropped my books off, left a note for my roommate saying I was heading up to see my grandma for the evening, and walked out to the parking lot with my homework. I dropped it off in my car, and then locked up my car and kept walking away. When I'd gotten far enough away, out of sight of everyone, I reverted to my true form and flew off to the island.

As I flew to the island, I was humming with anticipation. I was going to be able to see how well Sarah was adapting to her new circumstances. I hoped she was doing well. I reached the island quickly, and dove underwater. I swam rapidly through the water in my lugia form, then shifted into my human form around ten yards from the exit into the cave. I swam quickly to the surface, and broke the surface of the water with a gasp.

_Michael?_ Sarah asked.

"Sarah! Its good to see you again," I said. "How is your training coming along?"

_Its been intense. I've got an acceptable level of control over my body now, but I miss being human._

"Don't worry, you'll learn how to return to your human body soon enough. I take it you haven't gotten to your other abilities yet?"

_Other abilities?_

"Didn't Silver tell you...of course not, sorry. He didn't tell me what they were until we started working on them. I think you'll appreciate them." As I headed back to the cave's exit tunnel, I added, "I wonder who you'll have for your healing practice..."

_What do you mean?_

I dove underwater, and replied telepathically: _You'll find out. Just...try your hardest at the training. _I transformed again underwater, and swam out to the open ocean. I floated underwater for a while, lost in my thoughts. Then, realizing that it was getting late, I flew back to the woods. Resuming my human form, I walked to my car. I got in and drove away. I found a motel around an hour out, and rented a room for the night. I opened my laptop, sighed, and got down to my homework.

A/N: Edited, because this website doesn't like the percent character. Apparently, it doesn't like anything that looks like a url--even the site name --  
Also, I did a bit of dialogue editing.


	4. A New Name

Author's note: As usual, _italics_ are used to indicate telepathy. I'm sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up, I ended up writing a lot more than this...and then realizing that it had gotten way off topic. I had to go back three chapters to this one and start over from here. Whoops! This chapter is a bit shorter than I'd like it to be, but I couldn't add much to it without this chapter becoming overlong. Enjoy!

For the next two weeks, I got on with my studies. I lead a normal life, or at least as much of one as I could manage. I did my best to deflect questions about Sarah's absence from the classes we shared, although I couldn't do much for the ones I didn't have with her. Eventually, Silver told me to come as soon as I could. I told him I couldn't leave without suspicion for another hour or so. I soon got out of class and walked to a secluded area. When I was confident nobody could see me, I returned to my trueform and flew away to the island.

When I was about twenty miles away from the island, Silver contacted me. _Get underwater now. A fishing boat was destroyed by a rogue wave, and the crew made it to our island and is sheltering there._

_Really? I hope they aren't too injured. Have they seen any of us yet? _I asked while diving into the water.

_Not yet, thankfully. But you were closer than I would have preferred by the time I noticed you._

_ Sorry about that. I was flying rather quickly_

_ Just get here, Michael._

_ I'll be there in a moment. I'm almost to the tunnel._ I told Silver. I swiftly arrived at the tunnel, and swam through it. I exited the water-filled tunnel and looked around. I noticed that Bozu, Sarah, Ryujin, and Silver were all here, in their human forms. I shifted to my human form and sat down with them.

_Now that we are all here, we can begin, _announced Bozu._ First, there is the matter of your renaming._

_ What? _Sarah and I asked at the same time.

_Your old names don't suit you anymore. You will need to select new names, names that shall be used among us._ Bozu told us. _Please consider this carefully._

I sat for a while, and finally said, _Alastair. It...feels right._

_Are you sure?_ inquired Silver. _This choice is binding_.

_It has a feeling of rightness about it. Yes, I am sure._

_Very well,_ Silver said. _You shall be known henceforth as Alastair._ We sat for a while longer, waiting for Sarah.

Sarah finally came to a decision. _ Marajha, she said._

_An interesting choice_, Bozu said _Are you sure about this?_

_Yes_, Sarah said. _As sure as I have been about anything in this._

_You shall be known henceforth as Marajha, then,_ said Bozu. _Now, it is time for you to take up your duties. As there are two of you, we believe that it should be possible for the two of you, working together on this, to remain in human form while maintaining your shared sector of control._

_That would be wonderful!_ I said.

_I would have loved to have that capability,_ said Silver wistfully. _I was rather enjoying myself before I was changed, and then I had no time at all to remain human._

_Speak for yourself, Silver._ Bozu said. _I was happy to get away from my old life._

_I had a troubled life as well,_ Ryujin said. _ It did not pain me to escape it._

_Well,_ Sar—no, wait, Marajha—said, _before we get started down memory lane, could you get on with showing us how this works?_

_Very well,_ Silver says. _Thank you for preventing the derailment, we really do need to get on with this. The most important portion of managing the climate is knowing how to do it without overloading yourself. You can't just shove currents and tropical waves around with your mind, you'd burn out. You have to find a critical point where a slight push can get things moving._

_Define, 'slight', _I requested.

_ Only totaling a few tens of gigajoules over the course of a few hours._

_ You have a very interesting definition of 'slight'_ I said. T_hat would be...several megawatts of power that I'd be exerting!_

_Yes, well..._ Silver said. Sl_ight in comparison to what would be required if you could not find such points. _

_ And just how much would be required if I couldn't find such a point?_

_ Well, your average hurricane releases roughly a petawatt of power. Assuming you let it get that far, and really needed to get rid of it, you'd have to channel that into a harmless system. You're looking at at least a few exajoules to effectively dissipate that._

_ Dear God,_ I said.

_ Yes,_ Silver said. _It would be nearly impossible if there weren't easier ways. The easiest is to find points to avert the pattern that leads to a particularly nasty hurricane. Therefore, your initial training must be in locating these points. Let me show you how._

The rest of the day was spent learning the minutia of climate control on a global scale. A great deal of it boils down to recognizing patterns that lead to problematic situations, and applying the minimum necessary force to slide it into a different pattern, with a better result. It doesn't have to be done constantly, but the situation has to be monitored constantly.

We were also introduced to our other duty—dealing with certain man-made nastiness. Some of it is fairly low-key, subtly maneuvering existing environmental campaigns, establishing new ones online, and so on, but some of it was more "hands on." There have been a few times when personal intervention by a guardian had prevented what would have been a horrible disaster, and, sadly, a few times when a lugia was unable to reach the scene in time. Silver said that, for some of these incidents, it was only luck that had a lugia close enough to prevent them. He also mentioned a few times when the guardian who arrived had been too late to totally prevent damage, but managed to at least reduce the harm done.

Eventually, well after dark, the training was called for the day. We agreed to meet again over the weekend to continue training. I flew back to the woods by my college, and walked back to my dorm. I let myself in to my dorm room, and was surprised to notice that my roommate was already asleep. I must have spent longer than I had realized training. Sighing, I booted up my computer and got down to my homework.

I stumbled my way through what should have been easy problems about hardware design, and made mistake after mistake on simple antidifferentiation. My mind was abuzz with new information, unpacking itself and storing itself neatly away for later use. It was all absolutely fascinating information, to be sure, and I was sure that I would need it in the future, but now it was just distracting me. I asked Silver if he knew of any way to postpone it, and he told me he knew of no way of stopping this. I'd just have to deal with it on my own time.

Because of the distracting buzz of information in my skull, my homework took me much longer than it should have to complete. The sun was rising by the time I had finished, and I knew that if I went to sleep I wouldn't be up in time for my classes. I stumbled from class to class, and actually fell unconscious in the middle of Dr. Scott's lecture on the red scare. He was, understandably, pissed.

"Is my lecture really that boring, Michael? Should I just give up on teaching now?"

"No sir," I said. "I just had a...late night."At that, several of the other students in the class sniggered. "What?...oh, I see. No, it wasn't that."

"Then what, exactly, was it?" Dr. Scott asked.

"It's a bit complicated. I'll tell you after class." I said. Dr. Scott nodded agreement, then went back to his lecture. After class, he waited impatiently for the other students to exit, then nodded curtly to me.

"Explain yourself." he commanded.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I did have a very late night. I was with Sarah."

"...I thought you said it wasn't sexual. Also, Sarah was absent for just as long as you were, and now she's suddenly back and you're acting like this is the most natural thing in the world."

"It wasn't sexual. It wasn't even dating. It was just, well, I shouldn't explain. But I have gone over this with you. As for Sarah...I know where she was, but I shouldn't explain. However, "late night"

was a bit of an understatement"

"So, you didn't get much sleep?"

"I didn't get any sleep, Dr. Scott." I said.

"Well, that's unfortunate. Try not to let it happen again."

"I'll try not to," I said. "I'm not sure how well I'll succeed, though."

"By the way, do you know anything about ornithology?" Dr. Scott asked.

My throat went dry. "No, I don't know much about birds."

"Well, I've seen a really unusual bird around occasionally. It's pretty big, I wondered if you had seen it."

"No, Dr. Scott, I can't say that I have."

"Hmm. Figures." With that Parthian shot, he walked away. What had he meant by that last line? Obviously, I had been too careless when I left, but...surely he couldn't have realized? Hopefully he didn't realize the truth. Then again, he was a very observant man, so he might have. At least Sarah, apparently, had been more careful with her selection of a flight path and a landing site. It really wouldn't do for him to notice both of us flying, and then returning to class.

The rest of the day was uneventful, if viewed through a tired haze and sustained by more caffeine than could possibly be healthy. I made it past dinner, then immediately crashed.

The next day, I had almost completely recovered. I was still tired, but that was my usual state. I enjoyed my classes rather more than usual. I even managed to sit through my CS teacher rehashing concepts we had already gone over to help the slower people in the class. Monitoring the status of the climate, globally, provided far more entertainment than calculator games did. It was also rather more useful, and managed to get me through the drudgery just as effectively.

I was also excited, because that night gave me the opportunity to watch Godzilla for credit. There's nothing like free extra credit, except free extra credit that gives you an opportunity to amuse yourself! The movie was quite good, and the free pizza was both not bad, and not Chartwells. Then again, the second was rather implied by the first. Still, it was good to have good food on campus for once.

A few days later, I was idly scanning the currents in the Atlantic to pass the time in a particularly boring lecture when I noticed an exceptionally warm mass of water near the surface. Looking a bit farther out, I noticed a tropical cyclone—I wasn't sure if it was strong enough to be named yet—that would soon pass directly over it. Rapid deepening was the last thing I wanted to happen to this, as a quick projection of the storm's track showed that it was heading for a perennial favorite target of hurricanes—Louisiana. They were still in the process of recovering from the last hurricane to strike them, and another strong storm. Thankfully, there were ways to prevent rapid development of a storm system, and I intended to put them to the test. Then, I remembered the inconvenient habit my eyes had of glowing when I used my powers, and realized that there was no way I'd get away with anything in this crowded lecture hall.

I waited impatiently for class to end, and headed straight for my room. I closed the door and lied down on my bed, and put my pillow over my face, covering my eyes. I quickly got to work, adjusting winds _here_ to enhance wind shear, finding a nearby cool current deep below, raising it slightly, and...damn. Right as I was starting to get some progress done, my roommate had walked in.

"Don't you have class?" he asked.

"Lecture," I grated, putting on my best suppressing-pain voice. "Go away, I've got a migraine."

"And why do you have a pillow over your head?"

"The light...hurts like hell."

"Right," he said. "Shouldn't you head to the health center?"

"Not if I can help it. Now go away."

"Fine. I'll chill out in the lounge," he said.

"Thanks," I replied, and returned my concentration to the task at hand. As he walked out, I resumed my efforts to shift the path of the cold water to cool or at least split up the warm water at the surface. It took more effort than I had anticipated—until I remembered the limits that being in human form applied to my power. I was using up my energy reserves quickly, and I was worried that it wouldn't be enough.

_Marajha,_ I sent. _What are you doing right now?_

_ A study group, _she replied.

_Well, I'm going to need your help soon on this. I'm tracking a tropical cyclone, its headed towards a large mass of warm water. And that means..._

_ Rapid deepening,_ Marajha replied. _Yes, I know. I'll help you now._

_ No, don't!_ I sent. _Not unless you have a__** damn**__ good excuse for glowing blue eyes in the middle of a study session._

_ Ah...good point. I'll leave as soon as feasible, and help you with that current._

_ Thank you, _I sent, and returned to my exertions. My energy stores were almost entirely depleted, so I shifted to merely maintaining the artificial elevation of the current. Even that was a challenge in my exhausted state, so I was very grateful when Marajha managed to find a secluded area and start helping me.

_Thank you,_ I sent. _I'll have to stop now, I can't sustain this any longer._

_ Its okay, I've got it,_ Marajha sent back. _The others weren't kidding when they said it would take both of us to fulfill our duties in human form._

_ I'll start helping you as soon as I regain some energy,_ I sent, then lapsed into unconsciousness.

Ending notes: I did some work on the energy calculations. I massively oversimplified things, but assumed that diverting a strong deep ocean current to the surface would be sufficient to prevent a tropical cyclone from intensifying. I further assumed that such a current would be carrying roughly one Sv at around ten cm/second, and (to simplify calculations enormously) that it would need to be diverted roughly 30 degrees toward the surface. A few megawatts is on the low end of the scale of power that would require, and assumes an upward acceleration of merely 1/600 m/s2. And yes, an average hurricane releases roughly a petawatt of power (tens to hundreds of exajoules per day). Finally, I would appear to have no life, since I bothered to calculate this. Of course, this is just "back of the envelope work", but it shouldn't be that far off. I'll get the next chapter to you soonish, hopefully next weekend.  
I made a minor change in one person's title, but that's it for this update...I *WILL* be back by December, and maybe I can fit some writing in this month.


End file.
